Rough Draft

Jeana Vasconcellos                                                                                                    Vasconcellos 1

English 1B

Mrs. Knapp

13 March 2011

                                                                     Flower Power

            In the book The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb, the character Sylvia Bravo is a single

mother who is struggling to make it on her own and raise a teenage son named Sonny. Sylvia is

an unconventional woman. She works consistently and doesn’t seem to have time for cooking

and cleaning. Sylvia uses her looks to attract men and is more concerned with her social life then

being a mother figure for Sonny, “It was that my mom, if she wasn’t at her job, was out on dates

and whatever”, (5). Men base their opinions of Sylvia by her appearance, she looks pretty on

someone’s arm or looked at as a sex object, “I was always seeing how men looked at her, how

pretty she was in the way men are flipping through pages of dirty magazines”, (10). Sylvia is

stuck in a male chauvinistic world that views her in two ways, a traditional housewife because of

her Mexican heritage and a sex object.

            Sylvia decides that she wants to have a better life for herself and her son by marrying a

man named Cloyd Longpre. Sylvia wants Cloyd to take care of her and Sonny with the idea of

not having to work for a living and being a traditional wife and mother. Sylvia decides that she

was going to do what all housewives are expected to do, take care of the family, home and cook

and clean. Sonny doesn’t know what to think when he sees his mom doing chores around the

house, “My mom never picked up after me at home, before we moved here, except maybe every

few months, if somebody was gonna come over. For a minute she did almost everyday. She even

made my bed”, (37). Sylvia gives Sonny the notion that she either wants the best for Sonny or

she is using Cloyd to get the best for him. Sylvia asks Sonny, “You don’t like the TV in your

room?” (73), because Sonny never watches TV in his room therefore Sylvia thinks the TV isn’t

                                                                                                                                   Vasconcellos 2

good enough. “You want me to make him get you a better one?” (73).

            Sylvia plays into the role of traditional housewife but she didn’t think Cloyd would hold

her to it. “She was fixed up like behind the stove door wasn’t enchiladas but one of those too-

dark restaurants she expected to be taken to before she was married,” (51). Sylvia is trying to

maintain her role as a traditional housewife and because of her heritage Cloyd expects more out

of her. Cloyd constantly boasts about Sylvia, “I love to eat them tacos, and how I even got

myself married to a pretty Mexican gal,” (51). Cloyd wants Sylvia to make food by scratch and

Sylvia has no problem letting him believe so, “Cloyd complimented her on the chili salsa. He

might as well have complimented her on the tortilla chips, because she bought them at the store

too,” (51). Sylvia goes as far as to pretend to make salsa to keep her image as a traditional

housewife. “He doesn’t even know I buy este chile at the grocery store, he thinks I make it. He

tells everybody I do,” (76).

            Sylvia acts inferior to Cloyd and tries to make Sonny act the same way. Sylvia puts Cloys

on a pedestal and she doesn’t want to do or say anything that will make Cloyd upset. It seems

that Sylvia puts Cloyd first before her own son, “Don’t eat those!” Those are for him and his

client,” (79). Sonny gets upset with his mom because Cloyd was supposed to pay him for the

work he is doing and Sylvia doesn’t want Sonny to say anything for the fear it will upset him.

“He said he was gonna pay me for that work, I want to be paid,” (81). Eventually Sylvia grows

tired and unhappy of being a housewife. “ I am not happy here, what do you watch, meaning the

TV. I’m trying to like TV,” (73). Sylvia decides that she needs to get out of the house and tells

Sonny she is going shopping. “I just need to get out some, it helps me to go shopping,” (141).

Sonny has to suffer for Sylvia actions. Sylvia goes “shopping” and Sonny has to deal with

Cloyd’s and his drunken rage. Sylvia may want to be married to Cloyd for a chance at a better

life, but I think she got more than she bargained for.